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Impartial Admissions and Diversity Enrollment

Background

A Lawsuit in 2019 claimed  UC's "Test Optional" policy was a violation to civil right and was injustice. My research will focus on how admissions can be more impartial for all students while fulfilling the requirement of being diversified also.

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Business Supplies Design

​Autobiography

​​I am a high school junior in Emma Willard School. Grew up experiencing education in both China and the US. 

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Timeline

2021-2022 per month

October

Background research

November

Data collection

December

Interview template

Janurary

Interview in Emma Willard School

February

Interview college students, public high school students etc.

March

Compare and Contrast different interview groups

April

Solution and Presentation making

May

Finish making Presentation and present

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Poster

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​Bibliography

Kang, J. C. (2021, October 5). The myth of Asian American identity. The New York Times. Retrieved December 1, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/05/magazine/asian-american-identity.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab.

The article is written by a Korean American. In the article he revealed how is being a Asian American like in the US. This article is related to my project because it generally summarize Asian's identity, their key quality, and the issues they face. It is a high quality resource because it is published on a fairly popular and trustworthy media--New York Times.

Chavez, J. (2021, May 23). UC agrees to no longer consider act/SAT scores in admissions. UCSD Guardian. Retrieved December 1, 2021, from https://ucsdguardian.org/2021/05/23/uc-agrees-to-no-longer-consider-act-sat-scores-in-admissions/.

This article is published by University of California San Diego. It explained the reason why UC schools no longer consider SAT/ACT test scores. It is highly related to my project because this is what initiated my interest. It is a trust worthy article because it is published by a school in UC system.

Hartocollis, A. (2021, November 11). The Supreme Court tactic that aims to kill affirmative action. The New York Times. Retrieved December 1, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/11/us/affirmative-action-harvard-unc.html.

This is a law suit against Harvard University. It sues the university for unfair admission. It is another source that present unfair treatment toward asian race. This is also highly related to my topic because it shows people's feeling toward unfair admission. It is another article published by New York Times, which prove its trust worthiness.

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December update

This project is considering pros and cons of standardized tests. Hoping to define a fair quality for students from all backgrounds and provide students that are or are about to applying for colleges a sense of why is the qualities important and how it defines everyone. In past months I have gathered some resources online about how people thought about standardized test. In December I will come up with some interview questions that avoid sensitive topic. Later I will start interviewing people around me.

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Designing the interview

Recently I met with my manager Ms. McGivern and Ms. Halfi to discuss about how to design a non-sensitive and effective interview. And Ms. Halfi introduced me a interview technique which is called root cause analysis. During the interview I realized it is very hard to analyze very detailed and personalized interviews. So I decide to design 2 different types of interviews. One is a general interview which only involves mutiple-choice questions that asked a lot of people and a more personalized and deeper interview that only asked between a few people that are represantative.

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Interviews

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf3Xm_JRQ4jWtwzpZLVMOT6TjlZkxRfX-lSPgiTjl1h1fp3-g/viewform?usp=sf_link

 Except for the general multiple choice form, I designed a detail interview as well. I would expand my questions on what is people's motivation on taking the test and why do they consider it to be fair or not and why do they consider certain thing to be the most important and most confident and their background using root cause analysis.

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Online SAT

https://www.npr.org/2022/01/25/1075315337/new-digital-sat-college-admissions-test-requirement-2024-us

The College Board has confirmed that the SAT will be offered digitally in the future. This policy will first be enacted for International students in 2023. American students will follow on in 2024. The new digital test will still be taken in a testing center, so the change is not related to Covid. However, the major changes of a new digital test are that the testing time will be one hour less, the reading passage will be shorter, and a calculator will be allowed in all sections of math. Priscilla Rodriguez of the College Board shared, "The digital SAT will be easier to take, easier to give, and more relevant”. The decrease in difficulty will result in a smaller gap between the students’ grades. Because when the test gets easier, the upper limit will be lower and easier to reach. There is no way for students that already reach the upper limit to improve. But students that will not do that well in the old test will have less things to work on in the new test and end up with a better performance. The test will be a lesser consideration for colleges when admitting students. But since a lot of colleges already have test optional policies in place, the SAT being easier will not make a lot of difference.

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SAT Policy Timeline

1901: College Board entrance Exam
1926: The first SAT administered, which originated from an army IQ test, Army Alpha. 
1938: Every college part of the college board used SAT for admittance.
2005: The SAT essay was added in 2005.
2010: The SAT essay becomes optional in 2010.
2023: SAT becomes digital with a shorter testing time and calculators are allowed in all math sections.

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Admission Policy Timeline

Before 1901: At this period of time, rich, white, protestan young men who get into private prep schools such as Andovor and Groton, will go to top colleges as well.
1920-40: The rate of Jewish students increased rapidly. Colleges started to consider “manliness” when admitting students. Applicants need to answer their “race and color” and “religious preference” starting from 1922.
1940-65: The publication of the G.I Bill in 1944. The Vietnam war altered the balance of men and women as men joined the military service. Yale Early Admission starting from 1950. Equity and Diversity in higher education were first discussed on a national level in 1969 in the United States after the “Affirmative Action” in 1961, “Civil Rights Act” in 1965 and “Higher Education Act” in 1965. Pell Grant
1975: Common App
1983: First US News and World Report College ranking.
1995: The Board of Regents of the University of California adopts two resolutions prohibiting the use of sex, color, ethnicity, and national origin in the admission process.
Nowadays: Test Optional Movement

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This link directs to a video introduces how SAT policy and admission policy vary overtime.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NkkXF7T8Qrptgfj6VaAavyPP_31Q9WPB/view?usp=sharing

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Standardized Test in Other Countries

Standardized tests are only one of the items that colleges consider when admitting students in the US. However, there are also a few countries that only consider standardized tests, which includes China, Korea, Japan, Russia, India, Kenya and Iran. So one single one way of considering applicants will work for these countries because students have similar backgrounds. The whole society is more homogeneous. The similar background here, for example, in China, most students who took standardized tests grew up in schools which taught them to do tests. The similarity here is the similarity between education resources in different classes.

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MIT Requires Standardized Test Again

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/28/education/mit-sat-act-scores-admission.html

Recently, Massachusetts Institute of Technology has announced that they will require standardized test scores again for students seeking enrollment in 2023. Students enrolled in 2023 will be taking standardized tests mainly in 2022, when the SAT still remains unchanged. The admission dean of M.I.T shares, “Our research shows standardized tests help us better assess the academic preparedness of all applicants.” However this policy will only be implemented for 2023 so far. The reason for M.I.T being so conservative is because they want further observation after the digital SAT is put into use.

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Different standardized test policy​

Bowdoin College is the first college to have an optional standardized test policy. The policy started in 1970. Even though test optional policy was still very rare at that moment, the policy didn't affect Bowdoin College admission and ability of being a good school. In the first US News college ranking for liberal art school in 1986, Bowdoin college ranks 10th place.


In 2020, there were 12 schools remaining testing required policy during the pandemic. 

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Interview

​I interviewed my college counselor, Dr. Bennet. She started her career at the college admission side. She has experience in college admission and college counseling for approximately 17 years. In the interview, she shared, "I also think that test optional admission is a fantastic way to give more students access two schools they wouldn't normally have access to because even though a student can be highly capable and super bright and intelligent they just may not be a good test taker." Dr. Bennet is also the director of admission community cultivating equity and peace today. The organization is aim to break down barriers that exist to college access for students from rural communities.

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